I'm not a "Victim", I'm a "Survivor" of Female Genital Mutilation

When referred to as a Female Genital Mutilation victim – Hibo rushes to correct the statement as a Female Genital Mutilation “survivor”.

After Hibo Wardere was 'cut' aged six, in her family home in Mogadishu, she asked her mother why she had been subjected to such brutality and was always denied a response.

Until last year there was no clarity on how many girls in Britain had been subjected to female genital mutilation. But after official figures emerged - the brutal magnitude quickly became clear and shocking.

Studies like this make the work of formidable Hibo Wardere – one of the anti-FGM campaign’s newer recruits – more vital than ever. A mother of seven, full-time teaching assistant and now regular FGM educator of staff and pupils alike, she is on a mission to educate every secondary school student in the country on how to end the barbaric procedure for good.

Today, as an educator on FGM, Hibo uses her experience for a greater good, and she sees education as a way to freedom and the ultimate goal to eradicating FGM for good. Hibo says “equipping the youth today and engaging community with the information on FGM is paramount, our rights to enjoy and feel our body as given to us by God, has been taken away for cultural reasons, FGM is barbaric form of controlling women and girls sexuality, I fight this gender and honor based violence against women and girls”.